title: NCBI Reference Sequences: current status, policy and new initiatives.
abstract: NCBI's Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/RefSeq/) is a curated non-redundant collection of sequences representing genomes, transcripts and proteins. RefSeq records integrate information from multiple sources and represent a current description of the sequence, the gene and sequence features. The database includes over 5300 organisms spanning prokaryotes, eukaryotes and viruses, with records for more than 5.5 x 10(6) proteins (RefSeq release 30). Feature annotation is applied by a combination of curation, collaboration, propagation from other sources and computation. We report here on the recent growth of the database, recent changes to feature annotations and record types for eukaryotic (primarily vertebrate) species and policies regarding species inclusion and genome annotation. In addition, we introduce RefSeqGene, a new initiative to support reporting variation data on a stable genomic coordinate system.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Rm 4As.47B, 45 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD, USA. pruitt@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
authors.forename: Kim D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Pruitt
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tatusova
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Klimke
authors.forename: Donna R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Maglott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005091:Exons; D023281:Genomics / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D011544:Pseudogenes; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000737:chemistry; D012015:Reference Standards; D017421:Sequence Analysis / Q000592:standards*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins; D022661:RNA, Untranslated